After a week of counting, we are starting to get final ward results declared in some of the fifteen big councils I’ve been covering. I’m going to use this post to update as we get waves of results over the next few days.
Saturday evening
We now have final results from nearly all of the councils I have been analysing – with the exception of the council results in Wollongong, where the mayoral results have been prioritised.
The Bexley ward of Bayside council has finished, producing a final result on the council of 7 Labor, 5 Liberal and 3 independents.
All five wards of Canterbury-Bankstown council were counted since the end of Thursday, producing a result of nine Labor, five Liberal and one Green.
All five wards of Central Coast council have been finalised. The final result is six Labor, four Liberal and five independents. The closest race was in Budgewoi, where independent Greg Best beat the Liberal candidate by 430 votes.
The remaining four wards of Cumberland council have now been decided, and Labor has won a majority on the council. Labor has won nine seats, along with five Liberals and Our Local Community’s Paul Garrard in South Granville.
Labor won their majority with very narrow margins. The second Labor candidate won in Greystanes by a 15-vote margin, and the second Labor candidate won in Regents Park by a 110-vote margin.
74.8% of voters in Cumberland have voted in favour of continuing to fund the five local pools in the council area.
The remaining four wards of Georges River council have now been decided. Labor has won six seats, the Liberal Party has won five seats, and four others won seats. Independent councillor Konjarski defeated the second Labor candidate in Mortdale by only 162 votes.
The final result has been reported in Hornsby. Philip Ruddock has been elected as mayor with a majority of the primary vote. The council includes four Liberals, two Greens, two Labor and one independent. All three wards had a close result for their final seat. Labor defeated the Greens for the final seat in A ward by only 301 votes. Labor also defeated Christine Berman in B ward by only 99 votes, while independent Vince Del Gallego defeated the second Liberal candidate by 88 votes.
Thanks to that 88-vote margin, Ruddock will need to use his casting vote to give the Liberal Party a majority on the council.
All five wards in the Inner West have been decided. The council consists of five Labor, five Greens and two Liberals, along with three independents: Macri, Stamolis and Lockie. Labor candidate Linda Kelly fell 356 votes behind the Liberal candidate at the key point in the Balmain count, and Stamolis defeated the Liberal candidate by 210 votes on the final count. Conservative independent Vic Macri defeated progressive independent Victoria Pye by 162 votes in the Marrickville ward. Stamolis and Lockie have been generally more willing to work with the Greens, so Pye’s defeat leaves the Greens one vote short of a working majority.
All wards in Newcastle have been decided, none of them ending up particularly close. The council consists of six Labor (plus a Labor mayor, giving them a majority), four conservative independents, and one each for the Liberal Party and the Greens. Liberal councillor Brad Luke defeated Greens candidate Therese Doyle by 781 votes in Ward 2.
All wards in Northern Beaches have been finalised. Michael Regan’s Your Northern Beaches won six seats, with the Liberal Party on five seats, alongside one Greens councillor and three independents. The only close race was in Pittwater, where Your Northern Beaches defeated the Greens by 116 votes for the third seat.
The remaining four wards in Parramatta have been decided, producing a result of six Liberals, five Labor, one Green, two members of Our Local Community, along with independent Lorraine Wearne. There were three close ward results:
- Our Local Community’s Michelle Garrard defeated the Local Independent Party candidate by 419 votes in Dundas.
- Our Local Community’s Andrew Wilson defeated the Greens candidate by 246 votes in Dundas.
- The Greens’ Phil Bradley defeated the Local Independent Party candidate by 135 votes.
The balance of power will be primarily held by Our Local Community, who have enough votes to form a majority with the Liberal Party. If they choose to work with Labor, they can form a majority with Wearne or Labor. It’s worth noting that Wearne and Wilson were elected on the same ticket in 2012, and worked with Michelle Garrard’s father Paul to form an alliance with the Liberal Party on the former council.
The four remaining wards on Randwick council have been finalised, producing a result of five Labor, four Liberal, three Greens, and three independents, including two on Noel D’Souza’s ticket.
A final result on Ryde council is four Labor, four Liberal, two Greens and two independents. Independent Jane Stott fell 308 votes short of defeating the second Liberal in the East ward, while independent Simon Zhou defeated the second Liberal in the West ward by 424 votes.
The Hills produced exactly the same result as in 2012: nine Liberals and three Labor. The Liberal Party also won the directly-elected mayor, which was only created for the first time at this election.
Independent lord mayor Gordon Bradbery was re-elected in Wollongong, with 54.2% of the vote after preferences, defeating Labor’s David Brown. We haven’t had any final council results, but all but one seat on the council is now clear. The council should include five Labor councillors, three Liberal councillors, two Greens and an ally of independent Bradbery. The last seat in Ward 2 is a close race between the second Labor candidate and the second Liberal candidate – Labor is leading by 452 votes before preferences are distributed. If Labor wins that seat they will end up with six out of thirteen seats, falling just short of a majority.
Thursday evening
Four of five wards have been declared in Bayside, including the only uncertain race. The Botany Bay and Rockdale wards each produced a result of one Labor, one Liberal and one independent (James Macdonald in Botany Bay and Andrew Tsounis in Rockdale). Mascot and Port Botany wards produced a result of two Labor and one Liberal. The second Labor candidate in Mascot defeated Greens candidate Greta Werner by only 119 votes. The Bexley ward has not yet been declared, but Labor, Liberal and independent Liz Barlow are all on track to win one seat each. This would produce a result of seven Labor, five Liberal and two independents.
Labor’s Glen Richardson defeated Our Local Community’s Eddy Sarkis by just fifteen votes in the Greystanes ward of Cumberland council, in addition to another Labor councillor and a Liberal councillor. This puts Labor on track for at least six, and possibly as many as nine seats, on the council.
Labor, Liberal and independent Nancy Liu were elected in the Hurstville ward of Georges River council. Labor has won at least five seats, with a chance of winning as many as seven seats, but the chance of either party forming a majority appears to have faded.
Labor has won two seats, and independent Allan Robinson one, in the fourth ward of Newcastle council. The mayoral election and the other three wards appear to be locked in, producing a result of seven Labor, four independents, one Green and one Liberal.
Independent Lorraine Wearne, Labor and Liberal have each won one seat in the Epping ward of Parramatta council. The council appears to be on track for six Liberals, five Labor councillors, Lorraine Wearne and three others yet to be decided. Two of those seats could go to the Greens, and two local parties are also in the race for those three seats.
Labor, Liberal and Anthony Andrews have each won a seat in the Central ward of Randwick council. The other four wards appear to be clear, leading to a result of five Labor, four Liberals, three Greens and three independents.
Great work Ben. I hate local councils being run on party lines, but in NSW case it’s a fascinating way to gauge the way people are leaning. Doesn’t bode well for either Gladys or Malcolm. But the independents are keeping a nice kind of balance in the mix, hopefully.
What chance Linda Kelly in Balmain ward of Inner West Council?
According to the SMH this morning Stamolis got elected. Another hard working campaigner. Were the Greens relying on him doing the good logging?
Foot slogging that should be.
Actually Ruddock did not win on the primary vote; his primary vote was 47.76%. He got over the line on the first distribution of preferences. The “fat” in his vote was provided by the rock solid semi-rural booths in the west of Hornsby Shire as well as the western suburban booths bordering onto The Hills LGA. Along the central transport corridor north and south of Hornsby; he ran at “par” with the LIB councillor vote in Hornsby and north but significantly ahead of the councillor vote in booths south of Hornsby.
Whether his casting vote can/will have the power to create a majority on council is not yet certain. LIB’s have 4 councillors + Ruddock; presumably lined up against them wil be the 2 Labour & 2 Green councillors. It will hinge on how the Independent De Gallego “lines up” on key issues; particularly the very controversial issue of development. He stood on a “Residents Before Politics” ticket campaigning strongly against certain developments in the southern C ward. This MAY point towards potential co-operation with the LAB/GRNs creating a 5 all deadlock but whether this transpires and/or whether he lines up as a conservative on other issues or other developments outside his ward remains to be seen.
Greystanes ward has gone to a recount…
The recount resulted in OLC’s Eddy Sarkis being elected rather than the 9th Labor councillor. Still a Labor majority.
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